JCH 2014 Volume 39 Issue 1

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  • ItemOpen Access
    Drivers of nuclear proliferation: South Africa's incentives and constraints
    (Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014-06) Asuelime, Lucky; Francis, Suzanne
    Many factors are identified as causes of nuclear proliferation, but three stands out among them. These comprise the international and domestic political environment, technical capabilities and motivation. This article explores, on the one hand, the conditions that are conducive for the proliferation of nuclear weapons, whilst also suggesting strategies that can effectively address the problem. The authors use the South African episode as a case study. They identify the role of technology and motivations in the development of South Africa’s nuclear weapons programme and claim that the possession of technological capability is not a sufficient cause of nuclear proliferation. Rather, the presence of strong motivations in conjunction with sufficient technical capability leads to nuclear proliferation.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Potential for cooperation rather than conflict in the face of water degradation: the cases of the Nile River and Okavango River basins
    (Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014-06) Solomon, Hussein
    Although the notion of environmental security is a relatively new dimension of international relations, and of politics in general, it would be inane to assume that problems of environmental change are in any way novel. Environmental security is a phenomenon that is distinctively associated with the end of the Cold War. Much attention has been paid in both the scholarly literature and the policy community to the potential for conflict to arise as a result of environmental degradation. The aim of this article is to examine the nexus between environmental degradation and the potential for violent conflict by specifically referring to the potential for conflict to arise out of fresh water disputes by utilising the Nile River and Okavango River Basins as case studies.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Mapping a dark network with Social Network Analysis (SNA): the right wing Vaal Dam bomb plot
    (Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014-06) Senekal, Burgert A.
    The use of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to map dark, i.e. illegal, networks gained momentum after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, and numerous studies have been conducted that map Islamic extremist organisations. This article follows international studies and contemporary practices in military intelligence in using SNA to map the ties of the members of the Southern right wing group plot to blow up the Vaal Dam, who were arrested in 2002 and subsequently convicted of sabotage. It is shown how the leader of the plot consistently scores highest on betweenness, degree, and closeness centrality, and that he played an important role as broker between the Southern and the Northern groups (better known as the Boeremag). Ties between the two right wing groups are also discussed, along with the important structural roles that their meeting places played.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Three fleet reviews-and the South African Navy
    (Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014-06) Wessels, Andre
    Especially in the course of the past century and a half, many countries have organised fleet reviews to commemorate some or other important event in the history of the concerned country, or in the history of its navy. In this study, three major fleet reviews and concomitant naval events are described, discussed and analysed, in an effort to, inter alia, place the history of these particular events on record, to ascertain just how important they actually were, and to draw conclusions that could be of importance for future naval planning. The three fleet reviews that form the basis of this study are the South African (SA) Navy’s 75th anniversary celebrations (SAN75) in and off Simon’s Town and Cape Town in 1997, the 200th anniversary of the battle at Trafalgar that was commemorated in and off Portsmouth in 2005, and the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the Royal Australian Navy’s first warships in Sydney, which was commemorated in that city’s harbour and bay in 2013. Throughout, the emphasis will fall on the SA Navy’s role, for example in hosting SAN75 and participating in Trafalgar200; and its non-participation in the 2013 review.
  • ItemOpen Access
    The Dhlakama and RENAMO breakaway from government: another test for the SADC's conflict transformation record?
    (Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014) Maeresera, Sadiki
    The decision made in October 2012 by Afonso Dhlakama, the leader of the Mozambique National Resistance Movement (RENAMO), accompanied by a motley group of his former rebel fighters, to pull out from the government of Mozambique and to go back to his former rebel base in Gorongosa, Central Mozambique, has sparked widespread, yet well-founded fears that Mozambique might be heading back to armed conflict involving the same players and precipitated by some of the grievances that were thought to be resolved through the post-Rome Accords dispensation a good 22 years ago. For the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, this development is particularly ominous as it comes at a time when the region is faced with other continuing or broken down peace initiatives notably in Madagascar and the DRC. The elusive peace and security processes in Antananarivo and Kinshasa have resulted in either full scale military offensives as in the eastern Congo or in an unstable politico-security environment as being witnessed in Madagascar. In both these two cases, the SADC has been trying to mediate and find sustainable peaceful solutions without much reported progress. This article critically analyses the SADC’s capability to successfully and sustainably resolve and transform conflicts, using this unstable political and security development in Mozambique as a case in point. It interrogates the extent to which the current dispensation in Mozambique has succeeded in addressing the grievances that were, during the negotiations that culminated in the signing of the Rome Accords, recognised as having caused the brutal 16-year civil war of 1976-1992. The article posits that the October 2012 move by RENAMO, regardless of whether it is resolved through dialogue or it leads to another shooting war, presents a critical challenge to the SADC Conflict Resolution and Management Mechanisms as conceived, developed and practiced to date. Whilst peace has been prevailing in Mozambique for over 20 years, the article analyses whether or not the reneging of RENAMO revolves around the underlying causes of the pre-1992 conflict which remained unaddressed. The article concludes with a set of recommendations on how best the SADC could tackle this recurring conflict in Mozambique while, at the same time, drawing critical lessons that will assist in generally improving and streamlining its current conflict resolution and management mechanisms and practices.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Nie-eensgesindheid in eensgesindheid? Die verkiesing van Hendrik Verwoerd as eerste minister in 1958
    (Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014) Duvenhage, Pieter
    This contribution focuses on the inner-party discord of the National Party leading to the election of Dr Hendrik Verwoerd as Prime Minister of South Africa in 1958. The National Party of 1958 was a complex party characterized by a federal party structure, regional differences, different personalities and even ideological undercurrents. In the first section of the contribution the focus falls on the intense political discord within the NP of 1958 until the death of Strijdom on 24 August. In this section the differences and election strategies of the different candidates come to the fore. In the second section the election of Verwoerd as party leader, and more specifically Prime Minister, is reconstructed. The third section focuses on the period from Verwoerd’s election as Prime Minister on 2 September until the appointment of his first cabinet on 21 Oktober 1958. It is in this cabinet that he had to unite regional differences, personalities, and even ideological undercurrents. This contribution ends (section 5) with the first cabinet meeting of the Verwoerd era (November 1958) which offered an interesting ideological twist – a twist that even found echoes in the later National Party leading up to 1994.
  • ItemOpen Access
    The Zuma years: South Africa's changing face of power, Richard Calland: book review
    (Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014) Neethling, Theo
    Abstract not available
  • ItemOpen Access
    The Zuma years: South Africa's changing face of power, Richard Calland: book review
    (Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014) Van der Merwe, Barend
    Abstract not available
  • ItemOpen Access
    Jihad: a South African perspective, Hussein Solomon: book review
    (Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014) Twala, Chitja
    Abstract not available
  • ItemOpen Access
    Parliamentary whips in the modern era: a parliamentary necessity or a historical relic?
    (Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014) Napier, Clive; Labuschagne, Pieter
    In the academic literature, very little has been done to chronicle the history and the development of whips in legislatures (parliaments). The lack of material on whips is in spite of the fact that, in political and governing processes, political party whips have a history that stretches back to the 18th century. The purposes of this article are therefore aimed at addressing this gap in the literature and to emphasise the necessary role of political party whips, in South Africa and internationally. The discussion deals with the history and the duties of whips at the parliamentary, provincial and local government levels. The authors outline the historical development of whips and explain how their position has developed from noble beginnings, to the point where they play a critically important role in modern parliaments. The main functions and the selection or election of whips, within their respective legislative bodies and particularly in the South African context are also discussed. The conclusion is reached that whips do play a significant and necessary role in their respective legislative bodies and are of critical importance within a modern political system.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Finding voice, vocabulary and community. The UWC Student Movement 1972-1976
    (Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014-06) Thomas, Cornelius
    This article delves into an activist vocabulary adopted by Coloured students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in the early- to mid-1970s. It asks what language these students used to make meaningful in their solidaristic opposition to apartheid South Africa, and how they found their voice after the relative Coloured quiescence in the 1960s. The article specifically interrogates how, in the context of black consciousness, Coloured students acquired, appropriated and applied the concepts of “conscientization”, “black”, “liberation theology”, and “community”. Homing in on the period 1970 to 1976, it unfolds a student protest narrative, including the Demas tie affair (1970), SASO-UWC’s activism (1972-1974), the UWC students’ response to community (1975-1976), and the Soweto uprising (1976). It finds a new conversation and activism that found expression “in the community”. As an autoethnographic and qualitative narrative piece, the article scripts the unfolding of a new phenomenon in Coloured protest, one which shows a departure from an older (Non-European Unity Movement) political language and makes “audible” the student voice in community inclusive anti-apartheid activism. It shines new light on a moment in Coloured history that linked UWC students nationally and transformed the struggle in organic and instrumentalist ways.